26.12.2010, 13:01
GREAT LOCALITIES. AN ASPIRATION.
Oft do I muse in castle-building hours —
O ! might some trick o' the air advance the hill
Of Sion westward, I would gaze my fill
Upon her far-projected walls and towers !
O ! that the realms our rounded earth doth hide
Could, maugre all the horizons, be display'd
To my rapt eyes and heart—o'er land and tide
By some intense refractive power convey'd !
For I am bound by duties and constraints
To mine own land, or move in modest round
Among my neighbours ; tho' my spirit faints
And hungers for the storied eastern ground :
Cease, dreamer ! is it fit the laws of space
And vision should be strain'd to meet thy case ?
But, if it were, how soon Jerusalem
Should front my homestead with her mountain-hold !
And ever-listening hills of Bethlehem
Report themselves in colours clear and bold !
Then would I summon here old Cheops' tomb,
With its broad base to flank my bordering wood —
A mighty phantom ! pressing for the room
It holds in Egypt ! next, with change of mood,
Fair Athens should be welcomed, and the rest
Of those immortal cities, one by one ;
And, for my latest atmospheric guest,
I'd bid that crumbled mound from Babylon
Come looming up at sundown, with the moan
Of evening winds, and shadows from the west.
Nor—could I bring within my visual scope
The great localities old stories boast —
Would I forget thee, Troas ! whose first hope
Of travel pointed to thy lonely coast ;
How would my quicken'd fancy reproduce
Th' incessant brazen flash of Homer's war,
And heroes moving quick their ground to choose,
With spear-tops burning like the autumn star,
Along that sullen sea-board ! till, at length,
Mine ear should thrill, my startled pulses bound.
When from the trench those two grand voices rose —
And each involved in th' other, swept their foes
Before them, like a storm—the wrath and strength
Of God and man conspiring to the sound !
GREAT LOCALITIES. ROME.
Keen was the vision which Ambition lent
To Rome's great captains, when the vacant reahn
Was waiting for a chief to seize the helm,
And their stern martial looks were southward bent
From Gaul or Britain, like a wizard's gaze
Constraining some weak victim to his harm,
While yet the nations had no countercharm
Against a despot's eye, in those fierce days ;
The city of their greed seem'd well-nigh theirs,
Half in their grasp, full clearly bodied forth ;
My Rome should softly float into the north
At my fond wish, convoy'd by gentle airs- -
Rapt into Freedom's land a little while
From Pio's grief, and Antonelli's guile !
Oft do I muse in castle-building hours —
O ! might some trick o' the air advance the hill
Of Sion westward, I would gaze my fill
Upon her far-projected walls and towers !
O ! that the realms our rounded earth doth hide
Could, maugre all the horizons, be display'd
To my rapt eyes and heart—o'er land and tide
By some intense refractive power convey'd !
For I am bound by duties and constraints
To mine own land, or move in modest round
Among my neighbours ; tho' my spirit faints
And hungers for the storied eastern ground :
Cease, dreamer ! is it fit the laws of space
And vision should be strain'd to meet thy case ?
But, if it were, how soon Jerusalem
Should front my homestead with her mountain-hold !
And ever-listening hills of Bethlehem
Report themselves in colours clear and bold !
Then would I summon here old Cheops' tomb,
With its broad base to flank my bordering wood —
A mighty phantom ! pressing for the room
It holds in Egypt ! next, with change of mood,
Fair Athens should be welcomed, and the rest
Of those immortal cities, one by one ;
And, for my latest atmospheric guest,
I'd bid that crumbled mound from Babylon
Come looming up at sundown, with the moan
Of evening winds, and shadows from the west.
Nor—could I bring within my visual scope
The great localities old stories boast —
Would I forget thee, Troas ! whose first hope
Of travel pointed to thy lonely coast ;
How would my quicken'd fancy reproduce
Th' incessant brazen flash of Homer's war,
And heroes moving quick their ground to choose,
With spear-tops burning like the autumn star,
Along that sullen sea-board ! till, at length,
Mine ear should thrill, my startled pulses bound.
When from the trench those two grand voices rose —
And each involved in th' other, swept their foes
Before them, like a storm—the wrath and strength
Of God and man conspiring to the sound !
GREAT LOCALITIES. ROME.
Keen was the vision which Ambition lent
To Rome's great captains, when the vacant reahn
Was waiting for a chief to seize the helm,
And their stern martial looks were southward bent
From Gaul or Britain, like a wizard's gaze
Constraining some weak victim to his harm,
While yet the nations had no countercharm
Against a despot's eye, in those fierce days ;
The city of their greed seem'd well-nigh theirs,
Half in their grasp, full clearly bodied forth ;
My Rome should softly float into the north
At my fond wish, convoy'd by gentle airs- -
Rapt into Freedom's land a little while
From Pio's grief, and Antonelli's guile !